


Beware Mages Bearing Gifts

by Fairfaxleasee



Series: Fenris/Cassia [10]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age II
Genre: Autism Spectrum, F/M, Mild Blood, Minor Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-10
Updated: 2020-12-10
Packaged: 2021-03-10 00:08:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,339
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27985140
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fairfaxleasee/pseuds/Fairfaxleasee
Summary: Anders comes with a 'gift' for Hawke that Fenris is less than pleased with.Set in Act 3 after doing Fenris's personal questline.
Relationships: Anders & Female Hawke (Dragon Age), Anders & Fenris (Dragon Age), Fenris/Female Hawke
Series: Fenris/Cassia [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2141970
Comments: 2
Kudos: 12





	Beware Mages Bearing Gifts

“Oh, it’s you.”

Fenris stared in unamused disappointment at the figure standing in Cassia Hawke’s doorway. If he had known who it would be he probably wouldn’t have bothered answering the knock. He definitely wouldn’t have rushed to do so. 

He should have just ignored it anyway, but it had been his idea to have Cass send Orana, Bodhan, and Sandal away for a few days so they could be alone. Now that he finally, miraculously, had her back there were times where he just wanted to bask in her company without having to worry about anyone intruding. Normally he would just have whisked her away to his place, but she didn’t like being at his house when it was wet out, and he couldn’t really blame her with all the leaks he refused to fix.

He had been hoping it was Cass, back from taking Squall out on the walk she had been putting off all day waiting for a break in the weather that hadn’t come. He had offered to accompany her but couldn’t argue with her logic that there was no point in them both going out and coming back cold, wet, and miserable. Her knocking at her own door wasn’t unusual given her penchant to forget insignificant details like her keys. She hadn’t been gone long, but at times like this when he just wanted to enjoy her presence any time she was away was too long. But the person standing in front of him now was about the least appropriate substitute for Cass he could think of.

“Trust me, I’m just disappointed about this as you are,” Anders shot back at him. “Now will you get out of the way? I’m not sure if it’s snowing or raining or what anymore but I don’t particularly want to stay in it.”

“Then I suggest you get back to wherever you came from,” Fenris rejoined as he started to close the door.

“Hey!” Anders shoved one of his feet into the jamb to prevent Fenris closing the door in his face. “Maker’s breath, it’s not like I came here to see you, I’m here for Hawke.”

“She’s not here.”

“Well then let me inside to wait!”

“No.”

“Must you be so…” Anders shifted a basket he was holding to one arm so he could gesticulate in Fenris’s general direction, “this about EVERYTHING?”

“You would prefer I what, draw a direct connection between any and all events and the so-called mistreatment of mages?”

“Honestly, at this point I don’t know whether you’re blind or just stupid, now let me in!”

“And I don’t know if you’re deaf or just stupid because I already told you no.”

“It’s not like you actually live here, you know.”

Fenris snarled as he tried to think of an appropriate response. 

“Well last I checked I DO live here and I’d like to get inside where it’s dry now,” Cass interjected.

“Hessarian’s mercy,” Fenris swore under his breath as he took in her appearance. She, and Squall, were completely soaked. Some errant strands of Cass’s hair were frozen to her face and the mabari was shivering. He reached across Anders to pull her inside, “Cass, what happened?”

“Oh, I made the mistake of trying to walk down in the markets and with all the stalls taken down for the storm it’s just a big empty space that seems to defy the laws of physics and the wind blows in every direction at once and this,” she indicated herself as she tried to remove her sopping overcoat, “is what happens when it’s sleeting while it’s winding.”

Fenris went over to help her peel off her outer layers. He glanced back towards the fireplace and glared once he found Squall curled up directly in front of it leaving no room for Cass, who was shivering herself now that she wasn’t weighed down in layers of water-logged clothes.

He reached over to cradle her cheek. She let out a small squeak of surprise and slight discomfort. She still wasn’t completely used to his touch, but she had assured him she wanted to get there. He ached for a day when she could relish it, but he remembered more clearly than he would have liked the years he watched her on the streets below from his window and saw the pain flash across her face when someone; most often her mother but also more often that they should have her uncle, her sister, and some of her friends; touched her bare skin. He had caused her enough pain over the years, he wasn’t going to let his own impatience cause her more. He started to pull his hand away but she grabbed his wrist to stop him.

“No, it’s okay, I just wasn’t expecting it.”

He smiled at her, but made no effort to hide the concern in his reply, “Remember you promised to tell me if it hurts.”

She shook her head but bit her lower lip; a clear tell. Cass was a terrible liar.

“Cass, I know when you’re lying.”

“Mmmm…” 

She glanced away from him and pouted as she folded her arms under her breasts. 

_ A terrible liar, but adorable when she gets caught… _

She began to sneak glances in his direction as she raised a hand to run one of her thumbs along her lower lip.

“I mean, it hurts a  _ little _ I guess, but it always kind of does,” she leaned closer to him as she spoke, “And right now, it’s warm, and I’m cold, and…”

“And?” he prompted.

“And…” she pressed against him, “and I like it.”

“Cass, you’re freezing…” he murmured into her hair as he embraced her. She tensed for a second and he loosened his grip, but she leaned into him harder and when he felt her beginning to shiver he tightened it again. “We need to get you out of those clothes.”

“Can it please wait until AFTER I’ve gone? I have no interest in what you two get up to although I can’t imagine it’s worth putting up with either of you,” Anders had put down the basket and was glaring at them impatiently.

Fenris shifted Cass slightly to position himself between her and Anders.

“No one invited you in, mage,” Fenris spat. He would have pressed the point, but he felt Cass tense again at the anger in his voice. He had forgotten how distressed she got at being close enough to the emotion for it to overwhelm her. “I’m sorry,” he whispered to her.   
  


“No, it’s okay.”

_ It’s not _ .

But starting that argument would only distress her more. He let her go and took a few steps towards Anders prepared to force him from the house if necessary. He never liked being around the mage, but right now he was intruding on Fenris’s time with Cass, necessitating her staying in her soaking, freezing clothes, and-at least as far as Fenris was concerned at the moment-was responsible for upsetting her. Any one of those was reason enough to throw him out, all three were reason to see just how far Fenris could throw him out.

He glanced at Cass. She had joined Squall over by the fire and was attempting to push him out of the way so she could have at least some of the warmth. He just rolled over on his back and started pawing at her to get a belly rub. Cass grumbled at the dog before she caught Fenris’s gaze. She rolled her eyes at him but motioned with her fingers for him to say whatever it was he had to say. She didn’t particularly like him arguing with Anders, she didn’t think there was a point to it and she hated wasted effort, but she also wasn’t interested in trying to stop him if it was something he wanted to do.

Fenris turned his focus back to the intruder.

“Leave, mage. Or I will  _ make _ you.”

“Look, I just came to give something to Hawke. I thought  _ maybe _ I’d stick around until the weather cleared up, but given the choice between being here with you or risk freezing to death, I’ll take my chances with freezing to death.”

“Well, you’ve finally managed to say something I agree with; given the choice between you staying here or freezing to death, I’d choose you freezing to death too.”

“Hilarious. Is this what you do with everyone who comes with a gift?”

Fenris narrowed his eyes at the annoyingly persistent interloper. He did not trust mages. He particularly did not trust mages bearing gifts.

“I don’t know what you’re up to, mage, but Cass doesn’t need anything from you.”

“Oh, right, and you’ve just been great for her.”

Fenris curled his upper lip. He wanted to finish things then, but Cass had made him promise that he wouldn’t actually kill Anders anywhere it would be easy to trace back to him, and he doubted very much that Cass would consider her foyer such a place.

“Oh, you don’t like that?” Anders was grinning at him, “From what I’ve seen, you’ve hurt her worse than anyone else over the years.”

Fenris was spared having to respond by a growl from below them. The basket Anders had brought, or more likely whatever dangerous thing Anders had put in the basket he had brought, was hissing and moving the basket in Squall’s direction. For his part, the mabari just shook his head in bemusement and poked his nose at the basket, provoking another series of guttural protests and more wild lurching in the dog’s direction.

“Okay, Squall, I think you’re done with that for now,” Cass grabbed the dog’s collar and led him in the direction of his crate. “Come on, let’s go over here and find where hoofy went,” she bent down to look under the furniture trying to find the chew Squall had kicked under it as he had run in circles through the living room demanding his walk.

“Just what did you bring in here, mage?” 

“Well, I was letting little guy stick around to take care of the rats around the clinic, but he just keeps attacking anything that either gets too close, or looks at him wrong, or just anything, I’m not really sure which, and then I thought to myself ‘Oh! I know someone who has a thing for dangerous, anti-social, angry, sharp, homicidal strays’ so I brought him here.”

“You unleashed something dangerous that you couldn’t handle and you came to force it on Cass?”

Fenris grabbed Anders’s pauldrons and slammed him into the wall. He couldn’t  _ believe _ it. Well, actually, he could believe it but that didn’t make him any less angry about it.

_ How  _ dare  _ he put her in danger? _

Fenris tightened his grip and lifted Anders off the ground.

“Put me down  _ right now _ or so help me, I’ll…”

“Oh, hi there. What’s your name?” Both of them turned in the direction of Cass’s voice. She was sitting on her knees on the floor next to the basket and had lifted the top off to look at what was inside.

“Cass!” Fenris dropped Anders and rushed over to her. He didn’t know what Anders had brought her but he knew he didn’t like the idea of Cass anywhere near it.

“Maker’s breath, that is NOT what I meant when I told you to put me down,” Anders picked himself off the floor and brushed himself off.

“I don’t care,” Fenris retorted. He snapped his focus back to Cass who was lifting a small tabby cat out of the basket. Fenris narrowed his eyes at it.

_ Or at least it’s something that  _ looks _ like a tabby cat. _

Fenris wasn’t sure if it was the lyrium that burned under his skin or spending most of his life in the Imperium, but he usually had a bit of a sense about whether something was being magically influenced. He couldn’t see or feel anything amiss with the cat, but he still wasn’t about to trust a gift from a mage, especially considering who the mage was.

The cat sniffed at Cass a few times. Fenris wanted to rush over and put the Maker-forsaken thing back in its basket and throw it and Anders back outside, but he didn’t want to startle it into lashing out at Cass. Instead Fenris watched nervously as the cat rubbed its cheek against Cass’s before settling on one of her shoulders and closing its eyes. 

While Fenris was relieved that the cat didn’t appear to be a threat to Cass, he now had a completely different reason to be angry with Anders for having brought it.

“Uh...Hawke, can I see him for a minute, I think that might be the wrong cat,” Anders walked over to Cass as he was talking.

Cass leaned the cat away from Anders. “My cat.”

“Hawke, would you just let me-OUCH!”

Fenris made no effort to stifle his laughter. As soon as Anders had reached close enough to Cass, the cat’s eyes flung open and it had struck the mage hard enough to draw blood and was now hissing at him.

“Oh shut up, you!” Anders glared at Fenris as he healed the wound on his hand, “No, no, that’s the right cat. Guess you really do have a way with obnoxious strays, Hawke.”

“Anders, there’s exactly one person in this room I find obnoxious and it’s not who you’re insinuating it is,” Cass was looking at the cat while she spoke while running a finger over its head in an attempt to calm it that wasn’t working too well if the cat’s growls at Anders were anything to go by. She snapped her gaze to Anders, “Now, as repayment for the gift I won’t consider this to have been a botched assassination attempt.”

“Fine! Whatever! I give up, honestly, the three of you deserve each other…” Anders kept muttering to himself as he finally left.

Fenris continued to glare at the door a few seconds after it closed before striding over and sliding the lock into place. No one else should be coming by tonight and Fenris had had enough uninvited company for the month. He walked back over to Cass, but when he reached out to touch her shoulder the cat lashed out at him.

“Oh, no, none of that. You can try to kill Anders all you want, but you’re not allowed to hurt Fenris,” Cass admonished. Fenris wasn’t sure how, but the cat actually grumbled in response, then turned to glare at him before settling on the shoulder he had tried to touch. Fenris glared back.

“I really hate that mage…”

Cass kissed the top of the cat’s head before setting it down on the couch. Fenris continued to glare at the cat. He knew it wasn’t either of their faults, but he couldn’t help being a bit jealous of how comfortable Cass already was with the cat when she was still trying to get used to him.

“I know, but he’s gone now.”

Fenris turned away.

“Fenris? Fenris, what’s wrong?”

He signed and turned back to her. She looked like she was fighting to hold back tears and had started shivering again.

“It’s...it’s nothing. It’s ridiculous.”

“Fenris, I can’t fix it if I don’t know what’s wrong, and I’m sorry if it’s something that should be really obvious that I just don’t get…”

“No, it’s just...it’s just hard to watch some things be so easy for you when...” he sighed again, trying to figure out how to articulate his concerns in a way that wouldn’t hurt her.

“When you’re not?” Tears were leaking out of the corners of her eyes and her voice was cracking. “I know, and I’m sorry; I don’t want you to be this hard for me, I  _ hate _ that you’re this hard for me.” She walked over and leaned against him, resting her chin on his shoulder and tilting her head to press it into his neck even as the contact made her shake in an effort to maintain it.

“Cass, stop.” He pulled himself away from her as gently as he could. He didn’t want her to think the affection was unwelcome, but he couldn’t stand watching her force herself to give it.

“But-”

“Cass, it’s okay, really. I know how hard you’re trying, but I am  _ not _ going to let you hurt yourself trying to force yourself to do something you’re not ready for. I’ll still be here when you are...I promise.”

“But I shouldn’t need you to wait for me, I should be able to do this! It’s so stupid that it hurts to touch people, it’s not fair that you have to wait because there’s something wrong with me!”

“Oh, Cass…” he reached over and pulled the strands that had been blown onto her face back now that they weren’t frozen anymore. “What is it you always say about ‘fair’? ‘The most insidious fiction that’s ever been foisted upon an unsuspecting populace’?”

“Oh, sure, I see how it is, make me argue against myself  _ and _ you!”

“Well, if you’re on both sides of the argument you’ll win either way.”

“I’ll lose either way too.”

“I don’t think you’ve ever actually lost an argument, you just temporarily retreat to regroup and wait for an opportunity to strike.”

“Well, that and attrition are what I’m really good at, but still, I just…” She stepped back from him and raised a hand to her mouth and began to chew at her nails. “I wish I could be what you want me to be…”

“Cassia-you  _ are _ what I want. Do not doubt that.”

“I want to believe that, Fenris, but it’s never been true.”

Fenris was all too aware of how most of the other people in her life saw Cass. She hadn’t been the only one he could see from his window, and as bad as the way some people talked about her when she was around was, the way they talked when she wasn’t was so much worse. They had spent their lives trying to break her, and while they had failed rather spectacularly, they had left her with far too many scars.

Of course, Fenris knew about scars, he had more than his fair share of his own. They were just much easier for people to see, and for them to understand.

Even beyond her scars, Cassia was something no one really seemed to understand, and she definitely understood that fact. She understood being hated, resented, tolerated, fine in small doses, useful to have around when you need her, nice enough but  _ Maker _ she just needs too much sometimes. But there were so many important things she didn’t understand. Being accepted, being loved. That she  _ could _ be accepted or loved. Fenris had been loved, granted it was in a life he could barely remember, but he remembered enough of it to recognize that Cass loved him. But Cass...he had heard people say they loved her, and while it doubted it was true, even if it was, she would have been better off without it, or them.

He would not be just another person she’d have been better off without.

“Well, I cannot speak for anyone else, but I swear, Cassia, you are what I want.”

She pressed her lips between her teeth and nodded. She was still crying, but she was trying to dry her eyes with a sleeve. Trying because her shirt was still so wet from being outside in the storm she had ended up with more water on her face after she had wiped the tears away than before. But she wouldn’t have brushed, or washed in this particular case, off the tears if she were still upset. She wouldn’t even let him do that unless he all but begged, she saw them as some sort of appropriate punishment for whatever thing she always either blamed herself for or blamed herself for not somehow preventing.

She came back to him and put her arms over his shoulders and twisted them behind his head and rested the side of her head on his chest. He put his chin on her head and smiled down at her. It wasn’t a lot of contact and they were still separated by wet hair and clothes, but from Cass it was more than he could have hoped for even two months ago.

“Cass, I can feel you shivering. We need to get those clothes off.”

Cass mumbled discontentedly as she leaned slightly away from him to shake her head against his chest.

“Am I going to have to tell you to be reasonable about this?”

She looked up and gazed just to his right as she unwound her arms so she could play with his hair.

“But I want to stay like this though…”

She met his eyes for a second and he understood what she couldn’t admit.

_ ‘And it’s too much without the clothes.’ _

He glanced around the room. The blanket Cass liked was flung over the couch, they had been sitting under it reading before she had been forced to acquiesce to Squall’s increasingly persistent and disruptive demands for a walk. Unfortunately, the thing Anders had brought that looked like a cat but he still wasn’t convinced wasn’t really a demon was sitting on it glaring at him; ears out, tail twitching, extending and retracting its claws. He glared back and slowly reached out a hand to grab a corner of the blanket that he hoped was out of striking distance. It started growling at him and took a swipe in his direction. Cass turned around at the noise.

“Okay, mister kitty, you come over here with me and we’ll find you something else to sleep on.”

Cass reached out to the demon-cat who licked her finger while glaring at Fenris.

_ I am going to kill that mage the next time I see him... _

Once the demon-cat was safely off the blanket Fenris snatched it off the couch. Cass deposited him on an armchair, but he jumped off almost immediately and hopped back onto the couch where he had been after stopping in front of Fenris to hiss at him.

“Remind me to thank Anders for his thoughtful gift…” Fenris kept his eyes on the demon-cat as Cass walked back to him.

“Oh, he’s just grumpy ‘cause Anders dragged him out in this,” Cass went over to the demon-cat and started petting him. He closed his eyes and purred. “I’m sure Dante’ll get used to you. Right, Dante?”

‘Dante’ turned towards Fenris and hissed in response.

Fenris shut his eyes. Now that Cass had named the thing there would be no getting rid of it. He reached over and grabbed one of Cass’s sleeves to pull her towards the fire, and him. And away from the thing Fenris wasn’t sure wouldn’t try to kill him in his sleep, which swiped a clawed paw at him for good measure.

Cass took off her shirt, pulled her hair over one shoulder, and tapped the middle of her back over her tattoo to ask him to unhook her bra. He obliged as she peeled off her pants and underwear, which had gotten soaked itself after all the time she had been standing around in her clothes that were still dripping water in pools on the floor.

She kept her back to him as she removed her bra. He was slightly disappointed, Cass had amazing breasts, but she was probably just trying not to tempt him with something he was so infatuated with that she couldn’t let him touch just then. She wrung out her hair, auburn under the sun but deep umber when it was wet, before pushing it back. She turned back just enough so he could see the side of her face.

“Okay, so  _ maybe _ I should have done that right after I got back…”

He laughed once. It was only now that the color was slowly coming back to her fair ivory face that he fully appreciated just how pale she had gotten standing in her wet clothes.

“Yes, well, I can thank Anders for that too,” he said as he wrapped the blanket around her.

He led her back to sit in front of the fire as close as they were able without having to worry about errant sparks. He hugged her over the blanket from behind and was ready to spend the evening watching the flames with her when he felt her begin to struggle in the blanket.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered as he loosened his grip, ready to let her go.

“No, I just want to…” she shifted towards him so she could press her side against him rather than her back. “Now go back,” she practically whined as she poked his shoulder through the blanket.

“Hmmm...as you say.” He may have to tease her about this later, but right now he just wanted to enjoy her wanting him. 

She shifted again to pull down the blanket so she could rest her face on his neck again. She kept it there for a few minutes until he felt her breathing quicken and she tensed before pulling her head away.

“It’s okay, Cass,” he whispered as he loosened his grip again so she could get away if she needed to.

He was surprised but infinitely pleased when she didn’t turn away from him, instead pulling up a bit of the blanket and shifting slightly so her forehead rested on his clavicle.

“No,” she muttered darkly to his chest, clearly livid with herself, “but it will be.”

“It  _ is _ .”

“Oh, so I’m supposed to believe you when you say something is okay but you don’t have to believe me when I do? Is that how things work?”

“Yes, I rather like that idea.”

He grinned at her. She tried to scowl back but the corners of her mouth kept twitching.

_ Terrible liar. Absolutely adorable. _

_ More than I could hope for. _  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  



End file.
